


Patch Job

by DJRezYourGays



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 12:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12817425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJRezYourGays/pseuds/DJRezYourGays
Summary: After the events of the Binary comic, Torbjorn and the recovered Bastion unit make their way toward one of his workshops where he can take a closer look at its abnormal programming.  Along the way, they cross an old battleground, forcing Torbjorn to explain a few things to the confused omnic.MicroWriMo 2017Prompt: Breakable





	Patch Job

Torbjorn paused to stretch his back as they reached the top of the hill. Down in the valley below sat the remains of an old satellite facility. The Overwatch emblem was still visible on the fallen sign half-buried in the snow.

"Heh, I'm not a young man anymore," Torbjorn muttered, turning to watch the Bastion unit slowly but surely mount the rocky hill behind him. The small yellow bird hadn't left its side since the forest and was currently huddled in a ball in one of the omnic's hands, held close to its central core for warmth. The care the machine seemed to show the little creature still baffled Torbjorn, but it wasn't half as confusing to him as the affection the bird had for the mechanized killing machine.

"Well, best get to it," he said, starting down the other side of the hill toward the abandoned facility. He hoped it would have the tools and files he needed to examine the E54 and determine what had caused its surprising change in programming.

The Bastion followed, bringing its other hand around to shield Ganymede from the wind. The poor bird was puffed up into a ball and still shivering. Luckily it didn't look like they had much farther to go before finding shelter. His strange companion had been quiet for most of the trip. Bastion didn't quite understand what the Torbjorn unit wanted with him, or where they were going, but he sensed that the unit was a friend, and Bastion had so very few of those.

A sudden 'thunk' under Bastion's foot drew its attention away from its guide.  It scanned the ground, only to find another Bastion unit buried under the snow, locked in an unfamiliar configuration.  Broadening the scan revealed a fleet of Bastions all around the facility, many in various states of disrepair and all completely hidden from the otherwise careful eyes of the engineer still marching toward the abandoned facility.

The scene reminded Bastion of the field outside Stuttgart, and the memory of the battle replayed in its mind.  The way the humans huddled together, carried one another to safety, shielded each other - it reminded Bastion of the creatures it had seen in the forest.  They banded together, worked together, like it and Ganymede.  Like it and the Torbjorn unit.  Bastion couldn't remember other bastions operating like that.  Maybe they were just broken?

Bastion beeped excitedly, hoping to catch Torbjorn's attention.  It set Ganymede on its shoulder and used its hands to shovel the snow away from the fallen omnic, beeping curiously as its human companion bent down to get a closer look.  "Yes, it's one of yours," Torbjorn explained with a sigh, touching the side of the machine's broken faceplate.  Still one of his greatest designs, now the symbol of so much loss for so many the world over. 

He looked up at the still-operational Bastion.  "Come on," he said, "it's not getting any warmer out here."  

Watching him walk away from its fallen companion, the Bastion beeped with urgency, gesturing at the other bastion unit lying in the snow.  It rotated its arm to the repair tool, pointing emphatically at the other bastion's twisted chassis.  Torbjorn sighed.  "No, it can't be fixed," he said, adding: "not that I would if I could.  I'm still not sure about you until I get a look inside that silly tin head of yours, I'm not about to bring another one back to life until I know how it's going to behave."

The omnic gestured at its own head, then at the fallen bastion before repeating the gesture.  Torbjorn shook his head, feeling his temper rise into his throat.  "No, you bucket fer brains, I cannot just 'make it think like you.'  I don't even know how you think like you!  That's why I'm freezing my gears off out here in the first place!  Now leave it be and get inside before you start to freeze, too, to say nothing of your tiny friend there."

Bastion paused, looking over at Ganymede hunkered down on its shoulder, feathers ruffled by the icy wind.  Its attention returned to the wrecked bastion in the snow, a wrecked war machine left on the battlefield after all the other equipment was collected and removed.  Bastion blurted out an error noise, cupping both its hands around Ganymede and holding the bird close to its core again as it followed Torbjorn toward the facility.

Was it the broken one, maybe?  Would the Torbjorn unit really be able to fix it?  As it watched the poor bird huddle for warmth, seeming marginally less miserable in the meager shelter Bastion's metal hands could provide, Bastion wondered if it really wanted to be fixed at all.  It would leave those questions for once they were all safely inside and out of the cold.


End file.
